i highly recommend, if you haven’t done so already, starting with part 1 (tracks 50 to 26) here.

25. Bibio – Lovers’ Carvings
i was really excited to hear bibio come out of his shell on his most recent album, but i thought it was a pretty schizophrenic record. when a friend told me that his new album was one part wistful pastoral folk and one part hi-fi wonky beat production, i assumed the results would be some kind of mash between the two. i had kinda hoped for something closer in spirit to the beguiling future-folk frankenstein’s monster that was his wax stag remix from last year, but instead ambivalence avenue sounds to me like two separate EPs put on shuffle. but i don’t mind, because “lovers’ carvings” is absolutely sublime.

24. The Emergency – Fantasy
melburnians do it better? there is a great remix of this track by italian dude bottin that is worth tracking down too. the whole emergency record is great.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

23. Charles Spearin – Mrs. Morris
“happiness is love.”

22. Electric Egypt – The Invisible Spectrum (mp3)
picking one track from electric egypt’s mystical mixtape “impressions of the inexpressible invisible” is ridiculous. this is a hazy psychedelic trip best enjoyed from start to finish. get it here. last i heard, this dude was hanging in far north queensland – his myspace says “the remote tropics”.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

21. Coati Mundi – No More Blues (mp3)
“no more blues, no more boo-hoo, from now on i’m gonna take my ink from the color pink..” big thanks to undomondo for tipping me to this one. new single from kid creole & the coconuts member coati mundi is pure sunshine and joy, and has a loopy logic to its arrangement that rewards repeated listening! i found this track just as summer was starting up, perfect timing.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

20. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
stone cold classic. honourable mention to the song they did with michael mcdonald. that was golden.

19. Aoi – Played (mp3)
melbourne’s most intriguing beatmaker. download heaps of aoi stuff here.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

18. Hudson Mohawke – Overnight
sounding strangely to my naive ears like its read from a page out of daedelus’ playbook – och, a translation into scottish maybe? – this is the most bombastic and gripping hudmo track i’ve heard yet. i really dug butter and its drippy glowy excesses, hollowed-out tricks and tacky trills, but “overnight” has something no track on butter has – balls.

17. Daniel Johnson – Goodbye Silhouette
you might not tracks from daniel johnson’s 2009 album (released by us avant-pop label moodgadget) on many lists, but his record “lazrus” is enthralling in its entirety. classy bedroom pop production, and not at all trendy.

16. Gold Panda – Police
this, on the other hand, is very trendy. but also very awesome. the whole gold panda miyamae EP is incredible.

15. Dance Area – AA 24 7
DO IT! few songs bore themselves so deeply into the core of my brain as did dance area’s nefarious stomper “aa 24 7.” ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS SEVEN SEVEN SEVEN SEVEN. imagine if someone could channel the forces of crazy frog for good instead of evil. the few times that i actually wandered near a dancefloor in 2009, like at the annual box hill hospital emergency medicine department ball – well, it was always this song that i wished deep in my heart would start playing. but instead, always with the black eyed fucking peas. oh yeah, and this track has an amazing film clip! max headroom meets 1990s winamp visualisation. DO IT!

14. Mobius Band – Say You Will (mp3)
kanye’s 808s and heartbreaks opener gets the lush, dramatic pop arrangement that it deserves. the track is tweaked into having a slightly sunnier disposition, but its still wistful. lets be honest, the whole 808s record, whilst amazing, was a massive downer – this cover is a lovely counterpoint to the bleakness of kanye’s opus. from mobius band’s astoundingly good covers EP released way back on valentines day – its free and still available here.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

13. Matias Aguayo – Rollerskate (mp3)
ay ay ay was probably in my top 5 albums for the year – its hard to find a precedent for what matias aguayo has done on that record. suffice it to say, this song sounds like bobby mcferrin on acid, at a roller rink.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

12. Kate Simko – God Particle
music to smash atoms to, indeed. this is the standout track from her soundtrack to the pbs documentary “the atom smashers.”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

11. Basement Jaxx – Raindrops
jaxx doing what they do best – maxi melodic dance music that is, above all else, shameless. they are at their best when they are working without guile and working only to their own warped internal logic. their records, all of them, are very hit and miss. sometimes it seems their songs only work when it sounds like they are trying to please no one but themselves. the cringeworthy moments on their records generally, to my ears, are the ones where they are trying to ‘pitch’ to an audience rather than just indulge themselves. anyway. the 2009 jaxx record was patchy like all the rest – light years better than the last one, but not close to the almost-but-not-quite-consistently-great ‘kish kash’ – and raindrops is a stirring highlight. its a shame about the lame film clip, but it all just fits into the “crapulent/magnificent” jaxx duality by my way of seeing it. uh, the joker & ginz remix was awesome too.

10. Crystal Fighters – Xtatic Truth (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Remix)
revelatory – and more than a little rave-latory (see what i did there?) – remix of spanish hipster band crystal fighters from UK production duo totally enormous extinct dinosaurs. this remix makes good on the ecstasy that is promised but not quite delivered in the original. i like that this track ended up next to basement jaxx in my list because i think TEED embody that shameless feel-good maximalism that i associate with my favourite basement jaxx songs.

9. Bat For Lashes – Daniel (Cenzo Townshend Radio Edit)
i didn’t really even give the bat for lashes record a second listen but kept returning to the radio edit of ‘daniel’ all year. sure, maybe the differences are subtle and you’ll only hear them if you are into hearing that kind of thing, but i think cenzo townshend’s radio edit of this track is remarkably effective in turning what was a good song into a haunting pop classic. the edit is featured in the song’s official film clip too.

8. Giorgio Tuma – And Three Parasol Stars
italian singer-songwriter giorgio tuma channels both burt bacharach and the spirit of tropicalia. his 2009 album was my favourite dinner party record of the year – charming, quaint, warm, welcoming. it makes for easy listening, with all due respect. the melody on this track is so enchanting that it’ll be a couple of listens before you even notice the lovely (if beguiling) lyrics; this song has probably the catchiest couplet on his record, if not one of the catchiest couplets i heard all year, but buggered if i know exactly what its meant to mean: “Gleaming light on my fingertip / I design a ship with a see-through sail.” poetic and crystalline, those are my kind of lyrics. another tip of the hat to undomondo for this one.

7. Al Usher – Lullaby For Robert (Bulgari remix)
sure its a cliche, but each remix from bogdun irkuk (aka bulgari) is like mana from heaven. like a golden shower from god. this song will have you in its thrall within 30 seconds, i promise. press that play button down there, close your eyes, i’ll see you in nine minutes.

6. Major Lazer – Pon De Floor
this song that sounds for all intents and purposes like it was created in about 20 minutes. in conclusion i would like to add: major lazer.

5. Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo
i didn’t get what the fuss was about initially, but eventually, like everyone else, this track got hold of me. simple, incredible.

4. Fever Ray – When I Grow Up (Version by D. Lissvik)
remember “nu-balearic”? studio member d lissvik followed up his great “7 trks & intermission” record with this remix, transforming the meditative original into a carefree jam, childhood play and innocence distilled into a pop song. this remix brims with hope, and celebrates the fanciful dreams only kids have – the supposed ‘darkness’ of fever ray all but completely excised.

3. Bullion – Time For Us All To Love
i completely overdosed on sunshine-psych beat king bullion at the start of the year, putting both his “young heartache” ep and his “pet sounds” mixtape on a rotation so high it was in the clouds. as a result i more or less ignored his material for the second half of 2009 – meaning that i can now return to it for the summer, which is just about perfect. it was hard to pick between this and “are you the one?” for this list, i love them equally – i went with this because it was the first one i heard.

2. Discovery – So Insane
probably my favourite album of the year was discovery’s self-titled. synthetic, effortlessly maxed-out pop that doesn’t hold back. and the tempo change in this song is just so perfect and utterly shameless. i really hope that everyone realises (including the band themselves) – this shit isn’t the side project, its the MAIN EVENT.

1. Beyonce – Sweet Dreams
technically sasha fierce came out in 2008, and indeed this track leaked on to the net more than 18 months ago, but hey, it wasn’t officially released as a single – the sixth from the album! – until june, and thats when it got its claws into me. i’m surprised there isn’t more straight up pop on my list this year but i guess i haven’t sought much of it out. this song is a remarkable feat of engineering, beyond beyonce’s typically thrilling vocal theatrics you’ve got the heaviest, weirdest pop production of the year. like timbaland of old, its not rocket science but it is at the same time utterly unique. and boy, the way that hi hat shuffle comes in during the chorus, playing off the that muscular kick drum pattern and completely transforming the song’s vibe, lifting the rhythm into the stratosphere, sublime! “somebody pinch me,” indeed! of course, it probably helps that, like every man (and most women) on the planet, i’d like to get into beyonce’s pants. honorable mention goes to shakira’s “she wolf”, weirdly, i felt this list couldn’t sustain them both, but now regret not squeezing it in somewhere.

shit list? great list? let me know by leaving a comment.